Healing The Past With Creativity

Healing The Past With Creativity

A little while back I was interviewed by Expressive Arts Workshop – The Art Of Emotional Healing. I thought I would share a part of this interview with you with the wish that it might inspire you in healing your own past with creativity:

Please tell me a favorite story about your childhood? What positive life principle did you learn from your parents/caregivers – that still informs your life today?

When I was a kid I wanted to draw and express myself but I didn’t know what to do with the crayons. The colors were so beautiful I wanted to eat them. I sang and danced to records in my bedroom and wrote stories with my stuffed animals as characters. I believe that how we play and the imagination and inventiveness we invoke as children forms our purpose as adults. Now, I write and paint and create games. But ultimately, I believe that everything we do is creative:

The way we think.

The way we problem solve.

The way we make the most of our lives.

My goal in becoming a creativity expert was to guide people to know themselves better and create the life they’ve always envisioned.

Was there anything in your past that caused you pain, struggle or hardship? Share briefly if you feel comfortable.

I was pretty lonely as a child. I had a difficult relationship with my mother. I was adopted and so I was always looking for the place where I belonged even though I was given to a wonderful family who loved me very much. And I loved them. But there were always questions I had, places I searched for answers. And creativity seemed to be the safest experience to explore that.

If relevant describe a difficult event or circumstance in your childhood, teen or adult years that caused you to “act-out” or “act-in” in a detrimental way. How has your emotional pain been a wake-up call for growth?

When I was 13, I was raped. I certainly acted out after that. To overcome, acting in theater became my greatest passion and I got my BFA in theater. So much of my life has been about coming to know my own worth. To know I am loveable, wanted and enough. I can speak about the rape now with neutrality. I know it helped form me into the passionate, creative, expressive being I am today. Continuing to claim myself and overcome gave me an inner power I am proud of.

What is the main thing that you have needed to heal in your lifetime?

To stop searching for something outside of me and to come to know my own heart beating loudly inside me. To love myself and accept my humanness. And to know that being human truly is enough.

What is your greatest strength as a result of that healing?

I believe that meeting adversity and allowing myself to lean into the pain, to allow it onto my path gave me strength and compassion. That strength and compassion enabled me to understand what others are going through. The greatest result was how I came to love my big beautiful messy self and have empathy for others with their own flaws and messiness.

What is your favorite creative healing modality? What makes you feel alive, passionate and whole?

I spend most of my time writing. I have a book, part memoir and part narrative non-fiction on how to live your most creative life called The Muse In You coming out in the Spring 2019. Writing about and teaching on the creative process gives me great joy. I also just launched an online course called The Transformation Roadmap.

Describe yourself as whole and healed. Who are you in your essence?

I am the designer of my dreams. I get to creatively mold and transform them to be whatever I want. I get to play, color, shape, sing loudly, dance, let go, dare with them. Because the greatest art is a truly LIVED life.

How has your past pain informed your life purpose? How do you specifically want to contribute to life?

My goal is to ignite new ways to creatively help others re-invent their life. To shine big and bright and make the world a better place. I took my creative gifts, my pain and losses, my mess, my flaws, and my art. . . and turned them into a purpose and a passion. I want to give others the same permission.

What strength-based inspirational advice would you give someone who has similar challenges?

Dare to fail brilliantly.

Wishing you creative healing!

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Hi, I'm Lynn.

I’m a creativity expert with a Masters in counseling psychology, and author of The Muse In You and others. Let’s unleash the TRUEST parts of you to experience more JOY, more PURPOSE, and more PASSION in your life.